Condo owners concerned about entertainment district noise

Small but vocal group is a dissenting voice to proposed changes in downtown Sarasota

By JESSIE VAN BERKEL

A tenuous truce between condo owners and those trying to bring more outdoor entertainment to downtown has met a speed bump.

Well, actually, a high rise.

The small but vocal group of residents from the Plaza at Five Points is the dissenting voice in a push to create an entertainment district downtown where outdoor music could be played louder and later.

Residents are concerned the district would jeopardize their sleep and drive people out of downtown condos.

Those views clash with the Downtown Sarasota Condo Association, which recently drafted a map of the potential entertainment district and supports pushing noise enforcement one hour later and raising the allowed decibel level.

The association has long been at odds with musicians and business owners in the decades-old debate over just how loud downtown should be.

Recently, Commissioner Paul Caragiulo has been working with both groups to find a way to create a more vibrant downtown.

“We don’t want a club row kind of atmosphere,” condo association president Peter Fanning explained to concerned Plaza at Five Points residents at a Downtown Improvement District meeting Tuesday.

Faye Beloff, one of the condo residents who turned out, said she wakes up in the middle of the night to booming music and screams in the street.

“That’s not fair to the residents,” she said. She asked Caragiulo to make sure any rules that are established are well-enforced.

The condo association’s map, which is a starting point for discussion, includes a few condominiums in the entertainment district.

John Vetri, the property manager of the Plaza at Five Points, said the district should be reformed with a buffer for the condos.

“They’re residents. They deserve the right to use their facility in a peaceful manner,” Vetri said.

Much of the distress from residents of the condo at 50 Central Ave. stemmed from concerns that changes to the ordinance would exacerbate the noise from Ivory Lounge, the club below the condominium.

That fear is unfounded, as the entertainment district proposal would change the rules for outdoor or partially outdoor venues — and the music in Ivory Lounge is indoors.

The opponents of an entertainment zone might have supported the idea if they had not been abused under the current ordinance, Fanning said. But, he added, their concerns should not halt the conversation over the entertainment district.

“Whimsy must not be the order of the day when looking at ordinances and how you enforce them,” he said.

Caragiulo urged the group gathered at the Tuesday meeting, about 30 people, to attend a community workshop on Dec. 19.

At that forum, the condo dwellers, along with the business owners and musicians, will give their feedback on the condo association’s ideas.

Since October, Caragiulo has been gathering input from impacted groups to form a proposal that will eventually go before the City Commission. The commissioners will determine what, if any, changes are made to noise regulations in Sarasota.